media industry – Page 2

August 14, 2020August 27, 2020

Free Fortnite

In what may be the greatest TV commercial of all time, Apple introduced the macintosh computer to Super Bowl viewers in 1984. Flash forward more than 35 years to the present where Epic Games has turned the table. According to their website…

Apple has blocked Fortnite from the App Store, removing everyone’s ability to install and update the game on iOS devices, while instructing Epic to “remove the ‘Epic direct payment’ feature”. Apple is keeping prices high so they can collect 30% of your payments, and is blocking Fortnite in order to prevent Epic from passing on the savings from direct payments to you! Join the fight against @AppStore on social media with #FreeFortnite
https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/freefortnite

Here’s the remake…

The Apple App Store has been a tightly controlled asset for many years, contributing to Apple’s dominance in the mobile gaming market. Maybe this is part of the reason why Apple is approaching a net value of $2 Trillion. With Epic Games worth a tiny fraction of that amount, this could be shaping up to be an epic David v Goliath battle, and if history is any indication, it may be wise to put your money on the underdog.

UPDATE: Spotify and Match Group (dating app powerhouse) are showing support for Epic Games by speaking out against Apple’s 30% “App Store tax.” It’ll be interesting to see who else jumps on this train.

August 6, 2020August 6, 2020

Reputations on the Line

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a dramatic effect on so many things, including the reputations of various businesses. According to a recent poll by Axios/Harris, most major industries in the US have received a positive bump. Ones that took a hit: media and airlines.

For those of us working in the media industries, we’ve got our work cut out for us to regain the trust and confidence of the American people. And as you can see from the following graph, there is demand for news and media. So while consumers may not have high regard for media companies, they are still seeking out relevant news and information.

July 10, 2020July 10, 2020

Cancel Culture Just Got Real

Remember the saying “live and let live”? Another variation was, “to each his own.” Those were quaint ideas. I suppose the latest iteration is “you do you” or something to that effect. However you choose to express it, the idea is to give individuals personal space to hold their own opinions, ideas, preferences, and even actions (to a point) without judgement or condescension. Those days are long gone.

You may have heard the phrase “cancel culture” bandied about in conversation. Depending on who’s wielding it, the phrase itself can be a put-down intended to stifle an opposing view. But at its core the idea of cancel culture is the illiberal or fundamentalist notion that opinions and ideas outside of the accepted norm must be squelched. Fundamentalism is another useful idea to explain what’s going on. Fundamentalism is often used to describe religious extremism, and in fact the Taliban and other extreme religious groups demonstrate the kind of intolerance that we’re talking about. One might even think of this current movement as a type of religious adherence to modern tenets of “faith” that privilege feelings and identity over contrary facts. Cancel culture results in speakers being disinvited or shouted down. It results in reporters and editors being dismissed from their jobs for writing or publishing something that is interpreted as hurtful. It results in academics and researchers being reprimanded for researching or teaching ideas that have fallen out of favor among the “woke” class.

A very recent example of this “illiberal” mindset can be seen in the reaction to A Letter on Justice and Open Debate, to be published in the October edition of Harper’s magazine. A firestorm of controversy erupted when it became apparent that the letter, and its signatories, transgressed the bounds of accepted thought…which, of course, was inevitable since the letter was intended to push back on narrow-minded views of what is acceptable discourse. Jesse Singal, one of the signers of the letter, wrote an interesting piece in Reason that makes this point. Twitter has been abuzz with opinions on the letter and the fallout from both conservative and progressive points of view.

This debate is really about the conflict between traditional liberals and those to their left who have prioritized social justice reforms. Freddie de Boer addresses the tension between those who traditionally support free speech and those who see free speech as an unfortunate feature/bug that allows their adversaries a platform. But ultimately, like most cultural debates, it comes down to power. Who has it, who wants it, and how traditional and new media can be harnessed to shape the narratives that tip the balance.

Sources:
* https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/
* https://reason.com/2020/07/08/the-reaction-to-the-harpers-letter-on-cancel-culture-proves-why-it-was-necessary/
* https://fredrikdeboer.com/2020/07/07/ending-the-charade/

June 10, 2020June 10, 2020

Cops Pulled from Lineup

After more than 1,000 episodes, the longest-running reality TV show is coming to an end. Paramount Network, in response to public outcry over the death of George Floyd, has pulled Cops from production, making the 33rd season its last.

Cops started in 1988 during the WGA strike that crippled the production of scripted TV programs. The show quickly developed a following as viewers tuned in to ride-along and observe the “real-life drama” that happens in the parts of town that they wouldn’t dare drive through on their own.

Using a cinéma vérité approach to bring policing to the small screen, Cops and various spin-offs that followed became low-cost programing hits. But the dramatized portrayal of crime and punishment as spectator sport left critics disturbed about the way that it portrayed the “stars” of the show. With recent scrutiny focused on police brutality, especially towards suspects and victims who are minorities, the fate of the long-running program was sealed.

But reality TV shows are only part of the equation. With scripted dramas like Law & Order, CSI, and Blue Bloods also under the magnifying glass, we may be witnessing the start of a new approach to how we tell stories about law enforcement and the people who serve as first responders. For decades crime dramas have made up a significant portion of prime-time TV schedules, and for decades we have known that the portrayals of victims and perpetrators have not reflected reality. As I’ve said before, art is a mirror…but it is a funhouse mirror that distorts reality and alters perceptions.

According to IMDb’s entry about the Cops TV program, “The theme song, ‘Bad Boys,’ is one of the most well known television theme songs in the last 30 years. The lyric, “what cha gonna do when they come for you?” takes on new meaning when the bad behavior of law enforcement officers is in the spotlight.

May 22, 2020May 22, 2020

‘Some Good News’ Goes Big Time

If you haven’t seen the eight episodes of Some Good News, produced, directed and starring John Krasinski, you owe it to yourself to check them out. Go ahead, we’ll wait.

The series, produced under the “stay at home” directive, is just one example of the many creative efforts that were hatched in people’s basements and living rooms during the Covid-19 spring of 2020. But unlike some of the less-inspired efforts, e.g. Imagine, this one was a huge success. BTW, I explore the Imagine fiasco in a bit more detail here.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, SGN racked up more than 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube, with some episodes topping 17 million views. That’s nothing to sneeze about, and that’s why ViacomCBS recently dropped a boat-load of cash on Krasinski for the rights to make SNG into a brand with the full support of a major media network.

According to THR, “CBS All Access, which will be rebranded this summer and bolstered with more originals from across the ViacomCBS portfolio, will have the first window for the new episodes before they move to a number of the company’s linear networks. While Krasinski will continue to be involved as an executive producer, he will not host the new episodes. A new host will be named at a later date, though Krasinski will have some sort of on-air presence.”

The success of SGN should come as no surprise. In a time with non-stop terrible news some GOOD news felt so right; even necessary. Krasinski not only had the kind of affable personality to pull it off, he had a veritable host of A-list celebs and stars willing to make guest appearances. Friends from The Office, the cast of Hamilton, Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart, Oprah, and even the Red Sox got in on the deal.

Whether “good news” continues to be a big draw once this season of “bad news” comes to an end remains to be seen. But I know that I will continue to look for positive and affirming content when I need a little pick-me-up. And I won’t even feel guilty about it.

April 13, 2020April 13, 2020

Reporting on the Pandemic When Experts are Wrong

It is still early to be performing a critical analysis of the handling and reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. But that won’t stop others from doing so…so let’s take a minute to reflect on how journalists are doing, and whether there are lessons to be learned.

Lesson #1: most journalists are woefully unprepared to report on complex medical issues under crisis-induced deadlines. Economic realities on the ground mean fewer reporters overall, and fewer with the kind of specialized training needed when reporting on the most complicated topics, e.g. science/medicine, international policy, and economics, all of which are part of this complex story. That’s why we need more specialized journalism outlets like Stat to turn to for expert reporting.

Lesson #2: experts consulted by journalists were either intentionally or unintentionally misreporting the data, and the level of skepticism by journalists was insufficient. Taking the word of China’s authoritarian leadership, the World Health Organization, and our own medical experts and policy leaders has turned out to be, on some level, a mistake.

Lesson #3: political partisanship has clouded the reporting. The hyper-partisan climate in our country, and the partisan divide that separates news consumers into left/right echo-chambers, has made it extremely difficult to separate fact from opinion. The collage below was put together for partisan reasons by someone who was trying to deflect the current blame game about “who knew what and when did they know it.” It is easy to see how bias creeps into reporting when so much is at stake in an election year.

There are plenty of additional lessons to be learned, and there will be plenty of time to learn them once the crisis has been averted. But for now it would do us all well to have a bit more humility when confronting what we don’t know, and a bit more skepticism when “experts” declare their “truth” about this deadly pandemic.

UPDATE: This quote from Recode captures another dilemma facing journalists.

This core challenge for journalists won’t go away after the pandemic: There are always going to be threats that could eventually lead to disaster, but most of them don’t. If we holler every time we see one, we’ll be wrong and no one will listen to us. If we don’t holler when there’s a real one, we will have let down our audience.

February 18, 2020February 18, 2020

Sonic Boom!

It was a big weekend for Sonic the Hedgehog, the new videogame movie release from Paramount Pictures. Earning upwards of $70M domestically in its 4-day opening weekend gave Sonic the biggest-ever opening for a movie adapted from a video game.

But the path to success was not without a few bumps in the road. Last year’s November release was delayed after fans took to social media to pan an early trailer because of a creepy looking Sonic.

https://youtu.be/SXDa8i75PpM

With fans up in arms, Paramount did the right thing by delaying the opening and spending another $5 million bucks to give Sonic a makeover. The new Sonic turned out to be a vast improvement and led to this weekend’s big open. Turns out bigger eyes, smaller (less-human looking) teeth, and a less-elongated body is a better look for SEGA’s little speedster.

Knowing your audience and taking the time to get it right appears to be the lesson to be learned. Audience research can be expensive, but bombing at the box office is even more expensive. That’s a lesson that we could only have wished the producers of Cats would have learned.

October 17, 2019October 17, 2019

With $B at Stake, NBA Not Sure Freedom is Worth It

How much is freedom and free speech worth to you? You may never know until it costs you something. That’s what the National Basketball Association and star players are discovering in the wake of a tweet-storm that began with a statement by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in support of the Hong Kong protestors. Because of the nearly 300 million NBA fans, political statements about China come with a price-tag.

First a little background. Hong Kong was a British colony for 99 years and was returned to Mainland China in 1997. China, known for its record of authoritarian rule and suppression of human rights, has been criticized by much of the Western World for imprisonment of dissidents and persecution of religious and cultural minorities. The current protests in Hong Kong have been widely embraced by those around the world who want China to end its battle against human rights.

In response to the tweet from Morey, the NBA issued its own statement calling it “regrettable.” A few days later LeBron James said that Morey spoke too soon, that he “wasn’t educated on the situation.” What situation exactly James was referring to is unclear.

LaBron has a history of speaking out about social issues here in the USA. If he believes that human rights deserve world-wide respect, he owes it to his fans, and to the people of China, to stand for the protestors in Hong Kong. Yes, standing up for human rights and free speech does come at a cost…in this case the cost is more than lucrative contracts and endorsement deals.

According to an editorial in Slate,

The league has certainly not covered itself in glory in its handling of the blowback over the Morey tweet and, in the process, reminded fans across the U.S. that the NBA is, at its core, still a profit-seeking international organization serving multiple constituencies of which the most important one is money.
Elliot Hannon

LeBron was right about one thing…before you wade into politics on social media you need to consider the cost.

October 2, 2019October 2, 2019

Concern over Movie is no Joker

According to the MPAA movie-ratings site, Joker is “rated R for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images.” Scheduled to open in theaters this Friday (Oct 4th), Joker is not an appropriate film for youngsters who may be fans of the Batman franchise.

“Starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Todd Phillips, the movie has already been deemed dangerous by its vocal critics, akin to an incel training manual. To some of the movie’s fans, those critical reviews and negative reactions are just another example of social justice warrior overreach. “
Vox

Concerns over dangerous media content have a long history going all the way back to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato who warned about the dangers of writing. Plato was concerned that writing would be a substitute for memory and over time result in forgetfulness. Centuries later, photography was seen as facilitating the sin of idolatry. Motion pictures (film) introduced young audiences to all sorts of vices including lust and violence. Comic books, radio, TV, internet and video games have all suffered the same accusations of endangering young hearts and minds.

But just because we’ve come to dismiss the dangers and fears associated with each new technology does not mean that we should dismiss real threats when they arise. Bullying on social media, addiction to video game play or pornography, and racism and misogyny promoted in anonymous chat rooms and forums: each of these are real threats to physical and mental health and, one can argue, a threat to community.

Based on the trailers for Joker some are questioning whether the film gives too much attention (and cover) to “disaffected white men” whose alienation leads them to act out to get attention. The following tweets capture this sentiment.

In response to criticism the Warner Bros. studio offered this statement.
“Warner Bros. believes that one of the functions of storytelling is to provoke difficult conversations around complex issues. Make no mistake: neither the fictional character Joker, nor the film, is an endorsement of real-world violence of any kind. It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero.”

Not being a big fan of superhero movies–and not one to enjoy gore and extreme violence–I’ll likely sit this one out. But if you see it I’ll be interested to hear what you think. Is it a dangerous film, or are the critics who are passing judgement a greater danger to our collective well-being?